


A Cold Dinner

by zubeneschamali



Series: Little Lord Ackles [9]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M, oh no a cliffhanger, pirate!jared, virgin!Jensen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-07-08 15:04:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19871584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zubeneschamali/pseuds/zubeneschamali
Summary: Part nine in the Little Lord Ackles 'verse. A fine dinner has been prepared for Jared to meet the Ackles family, but he isn't there. Is Jensen's mother right to say that Jared has changed his mind now that he's gotten what he wanted, or is there something more sinister going on?





	A Cold Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> The last we saw, Jared had received a pardon from Jensen's father, the governor, and had revealed himself to be of the nobility so that he might have a shot at courting Jensen. They agreed Jared would meet the rest of the family at dinner the next evening, which is where we begin…

"Your soup is getting cold, Jensen."

He gritted his teeth and kept his hands in his lap. "Not all of our dinner guests have arrived, Mother."

She sighed and daintily touched her napkin to her lips. "Perhaps our guest isn't coming."

"He'll be here." Jensen thought his tone was as flat and level as the three other times he'd insisted that Jared must be on his way, but the sharp look from his father suggested otherwise. 

"Perhaps he needs a more reliable timepiece, then." Donna's gaze flickered towards the grandfather clock and back. "A bona-fide member of the aristocracy would not keep his hosts waiting like this."

"My dear, there's no need to question his credentials," Alan broke in from the other end of the long table. "I verified them myself."

"I suppose you did." She sniffed. "That may well be what he was after all along, you know."

Jensen frowned. "What do you mean?"

His mother gave him a small, sad smile. "Only that the moment he received a pardon, which was given in some small part because of his pedigree, he has vanished. Without even a note to you, whom he claimed to want to court."

"He _does_ want to court me," Jensen ground out between his clenched teeth. "And his heritage had nothing to do with Father's pardon. Jared earned that for saving both of our lives."

Donna sniffed again. "So you claim."

"Donna, it is the truth," Alan sighed. "Though I must confess, I do wonder where your young man is," he said to Jensen. "He seemed quite eager to meet with you yesterday."

"He said he would be here," Jensen said firmly. "And he will."

Silence fell, and then Donna picked up her soup spoon. She finished her seafood bisque without further comment. Eventually, Alan began to eat his as well, and then Mackenzie, seated across from Jensen, gave him an apologetic shrug and picked up her spoon. Only the light clank of their spoons against the fine china broke the silence.

Jensen sat there rigidly, feeling the empty space in the seat beside his like the worry that was gnawing away at his gut. Jared might have been nervous about this dinner, but he would not have deliberately missed it. Something must have happened to him. Only the realization that he would have no idea where to start looking kept Jensen in his seat, his bisque going cold in the gold-rimmed china before him.

A servant cleared away the bowls, Jensen's still untouched. A second glass of wine was poured for his parents, although Jensen still hadn't touched his first. The room was still quiet except for the clank of dishes, and Jensen wanted to say _something_ , if not to shout and scream. How could they not be worried about Jared? Worse yet, how could they blame him for not being here, when Jensen knew he couldn't be missing on purpose?

The front bell chimed, and Jensen half rose out of his seat, heart pounding with sudden relief. Jared was finally here. Alan motioned to him to stay put, but he hovered over his chair, ready to leap up and greet Jared and try to smooth over the horrible start to the evening.

But it wasn't Jared who walked in. It was Jim, their butler, who stood in the doorway to the dining room and said to Jensen with raised eyebrows, "You have a visitor, Master Ackles." 

Jensen stood up fully. "Jared?"

Jim silently shook his head, and Jensen's heart sank. He followed Jim out of the dining room and into the hallway, hearing the scrape of chairs as his family followed. 

When he saw who was waiting at the front door, looking disheveled and ragged, the knot in his stomach tightened. "Aldis?" Jensen asked. "What happened to Jared?"

There was a smear of blood at Aldis's temple, and he was leaning against the doorframe as if it was all that held him up. "Pellegrino," he said.

"Oh, God." Jensen's hand flew to his mouth, dread filling every fiber of his being. "Is he…?"

"Let the poor man come inside." It was Jensen's mother, coming forward to take Aldis by the arm and bring him in, taking charge in a crisis like she always did. "Jim, would you fetch a washbasin and some clean clothes? Sam, bring the man some spirits, please."

Aldis started, "It's all right, I don’t—"

"You've been hurt," Donna said firmly. "You can tell us your news while we take care of you." 

"He's alive," Aldis said, looking at Jensen, and Jensen's stomach lurched at the thought that anything else might have been a possibility. "He's alive, but you need to hurry."

"Why?" Jensen asked. "What happened?"

Jim had arrived with a wet cloth and was dabbing at Aldis's cheek. Aldis screwed up his face and leaned away before taking the cloth and roughly swiping at the side of his head. "Jared came back to the ship last night and told us what had happened. How we've been—" He looked up at Alan, standing behind Jensen. "Thank you, sir. Thank you for everything."

"Thank you for helping to bring my son back," Alan replied, putting his hand on Jensen's shoulder.

Jensen squirmed. "What about Jared?"

Frowning, Aldis went on, "He had to go back out on an errand, and—and I went with him. I don't know how Pellegrino got here so fast, but he was waiting for us on the docks. He and Huffman and a few others. They got the best of us."

"Where is he now?" Jensen demanded.

Aldis looked over Jensen's shoulder and then back at him. "On Pellegrino's ship. He said if you're not on the ship by the time the first watch starts, he's gonna make Jared walk the plank."

Jensen heard his parents gasp, but he could only stare at Aldis in horror. "What?"

"That's less than two hours from now," Alan said. "Where's this ship?"

Aldis took a step back. "Sir, I can't—I was only supposed to talk to Jensen." He waved a hand at all of them. "You all weren't supposed to be here."

"Let's go," Jensen said, stepping forward and twisting away from his father's grip.

"Jensen, you can't," Alan snapped. "Let me get my men together."

"There's no time," he retorted. He was standing next to Aldis now in the doorway. "Father, please. I owe him my life."

"I am not letting you turn yourself over to a _pirate_!" Alan replied. "Not one like Pellegrino. Not one who has already mistreated you the way he has."

"He'll kill Jared," Jensen said, his voice shaking. He looked at his family, his mother wide-eyed and with a hand to her mouth, Mackenzie gaping at him from behind his mother's shoulder. "I love you all," he said, taking in each of them in in turn. "But I love him, too."

There was silence for a moment. Then Alan cleared his throat. "I understand," he said. "I know you've already been through a lot together. But I am not letting you go out there alone. We have a small amount of time. We can at least come up with a plan."

Jensen looked at Aldis. "How long will it take to get there?"

"Half an hour at least, and I'm not too sure how precise his watch is, if you know what I mean."

He straightened up and looked his father in the eye. "We have forty minutes," he said. "And I'm going after Jared."

Alan gave him a sharp nod, looking not so much like Jensen's father as the Governor and military commander he was. "Then we should commence planning immediately."


End file.
